Due to the global economy, electronic devices may be manufactured in a facility in a particular country and then shipped to destinations around the world. This provides economies of scale, as a single manufacturing facility can be optimized to produce large quantities of a device. Shipping may be cheaper than constructing manufacturing facilities in numerous countries.
However, this manufacturing scheme has a drawback in that there is a need to configure such devices differently for each destination. For example, a printer shipped to Europe may require different settings than a printer shipped to the United States. The configuration may depend on the language of the region, the fonts needed for the language, a communication protocol used in the region, a standard paper size used in the region, etc.
In one prior art approach to configuration, a configuration process is performed at the factory by the manufacturer. This may include electronically downloading data into the memory of the device.
However, this prior art approach has several drawbacks. It is inflexible and delays shipping. It is time-consuming for a worker at a local distribution center or other geographic site to un-box, connect, configure, and re-package each electronic device. In addition, it requires accurate forecasting of future product distribution, and missing a predicted target of number of units to be shipped to a region incurs extra cost and requires extra handling. Most of all, it is relatively expensive and requires a significant amount of man-hours to perform.
In another prior art approach, the manufacturer provides multiple configuration data sets in a memory of the electronic device. Therefore, the user may configure the electronic device by selecting an appropriate data set or sets.
A drawback to this prior art approach is that the cost of the excess (and unused) memory is a significant addition to the purchase price. In addition, the set-up may be difficult and time-consuming for the purchaser, especially if the purchaser is not knowledgeable about the particular device. Moreover, the user interface (such as a printer control panel, for example) may offer very limited configuration ability, i.e., no large display screen for displaying instructions, menus, choices, diagrams, etc. for the benefit of the person configuring the electronic device. The very limited configuration ability of the prior art makes the configuration process very convoluted.
In yet another prior art approach, the purchaser is left to program the device and enter any needed settings. This has obvious drawbacks in that the set-up may be difficult and time-consuming for the purchaser to perform, especially if the purchaser is not proficient in using the particular electronic device. In addition, the user interface of the electronic device may offer limited configuration ability. Moreover, for an electronic device that is used by multiple users (such as in an institutional setting), configuring and re-configuring an electronic device may be too difficult and time-consuming. The user may likely require special training and documentation, and may still be error-prone and frustrated due to the length and complexity of the configuration process. Furthermore, in an institutional setting where more than one electronic device is purchased at one time, the man-hours required to set up multiple electronic devices may be very costly. Consequently, a fast and efficient way to configure a large number of devices is highly desirable.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for improvements in the configuration of an electronic device.